Never change
by Hellsleprechaun
Summary: Some things never change, Damon taking care of Stefan is one of them, whether it's saving him from a brutal attack or picking him up when he's passed out on somebody's sofa. No slah just brotherly love.


**I do not own the vampire diaries, it belongs to L.J Smith and the CW.**

**1893**

Stefan walked hurriedly down the dark streets of New Orleans, although there were not many people around at this time, there were enough that he could not risk using his vampire speed.

He was walking quickly because, he was filled with a strong sense of unease. He could not shake the feeling that somebody, or something was following him. He had been picking up on it all night, while working at the hotel bar he was currently employed at. He had been nervous all evening, his friend Tabitha had repeatedly asked if he was alright, he smiled and assured her that everything was fine. After that he had made an effort to behave normally.

Now, as he was walking back to his small apartment, he was convinced that something was coming after him. He contemplated his options with himself as he walked, he had no weapons as he was not usually in a position where they would come in useful. On the one hand, if it was a human pursuing him then he had nothing to fear, he could compel them, or just knock them unconscious. If worst came to worst he could hurt them enough to prevent them from coming after him ever again. However, on the other hand, if a vampire was following then he had a serious problem. He was fully aware that due to his current diet, consisting of mainly rabbits and squirrels that he was weaker than the average vampire.

He kept walking for a few more blocks, before being slammed roughly against a brick wall. He glanced around quickly- while he had been busy worrying about his strength and trying to remember the last time he fed, he had failed to notice that the area he was walking into was deserted. Nobody anywhere. Not that, he supposed, the humans around would have been any use, but most vampires were sharp enough to know that if they did not want to raise suspicions, that they had to be fairly discreet.

_And you've just managed to give him discreet, well done._ He sardonically congratulated himself on his own idiocy.

He glared at the vampire pinning him against the wall, male, dark hair, flashing him a malicious smirk.

Stefan was almost certain that he had never met this vampire before, he was not attacking over a petty grudge, there was no anger in him, just a hunger for chaos and destruction. That made him even more dangerous, he could not be reasoned with, he was doing this for the sake of it, to provide a thrill.

Stefan gave him a harsh shove and sent him stumbling backwards, enough to try and run. He did not make it very far, he ended up on his back with the larger vampire pinning him down.

"This is gonna be easier than I thought." He purred, eyes dancing with adrenalin.

Stefan kicked out at the man, but he was ready for him this time and was not knocked from him. Stefan was not going to give up that easily, he may have been weak, but he was not going to die because of an unwillingness to fight back.

He growled at the older vampire, baring his fangs in the most menacing way possible.

"Boy, don't think you can frighten me with that." He did not seem to even be fully aware that Stefan was thrashing and kicking to try and loosen his grip.

He grinned and his own fangs came out and the veins around his eyes popped out, but that did not make him appear any more menacing, if anything it made him less so. At least now the monster was apparent.

Stefan let out a howl of agony as the vampire plunged his fangs deep into his neck and slurped his blood hungrily.

"Oh, that's good." He hissed and sunk his teeth back into him, in a new spot this time, and viciously opened the skin, he gulped his blood this time, quicker than before, and Stefan could feel the little strength he had draining from his limbs, his eyes wanted to close and his breathing grew shallower.

It was as though he had lost all control of his body, it was relaxing, trying to sleep, but inside he was screaming. The panic was bubbling up inside him, if he did nothing then he was going to die here, in the filthy gutter, with nobody other than his killer by his side.

_Just like the first time. _He mused, and his brain began to drift to thoughts of his last death, the last thing he had seen then was the dead body of his brother, glassy eyes open and staring.

He heard a muffled grunt of pain, exactly like the ones he had made last time, lying bleeding with the bullet embedded in his stomach. He smiled as Damon's face swam before his eyes, just like last time.

Stefan groaned and opened his eyes slowly, they stung and they drifted closed on his first couple of attempts, but finally he succeeded in keeping them open.

He sat up and gazed around the room, this was definitely not his apartment. For one thing this room was huge, it had an enormous window on one wall, and afternoon sunlight filtered through, and tasteful but probably inexpensive paintings decorating the walls.

"Morning, sleeping beauty."

He turned his head quickly- a mistake, his head hurt like a son of a bitch. Damon stood, leaning casually against one of the walls, as though he had been there for a long time, although Stefan was positive that he had not been there a second ago.

"What are you doing here, brother?"

"Actually, little brother, I think the question you should be asking is _what am I doing here? _I being _you, _this is my hotel room."

Stefan just watched him warily, last time he had seen Damon had been after he left Mystic Falls and left him with Lexi. Damon had not been overjoyed with him then, he was sure that that had not changed.

He reached up to run his neck and was taken by surprise when Damon swatted his hand away.

"Still healing, don't touch."

Stefan was suddenly reminded strangely of when he was a child and used to pick at his scabs, the reaction from his brother was almost exactly the same.

"Why did you bring me here?" As much as he wanted to trust his brother, he was still wary of him, Damon had been a good man, but not one it was wise to cross, that had not been altered by vampirism.

"What, _no thanks for saving my life_ _last night ,brother dear?"_

"Sorry. Thank you. How did you find me? I didn't even know you were here." He had not even known for sure that Damon was in the country. The only thing he really knew for certain was that his brother was still alive, he had no proof of that, but he knew that if anything happened to Damon, he would know, he would feel it surely. You could not lose the only true family you had left and not know.

"I was keeping an eye on my baby brother, there's nothing wrong with that." He spoke mockingly, and gave Stefan a fake comforting pat on the back.

Damon thought back to last night and tried not to let his rage boil over. That bastard had been feeding off his brother, and he was not going to even think about where his wandering hands had been headed.

_Well, since those hands are now separate from the rest of his body that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Perhaps you should have left him alive, let him suffer more._

_No, he suffered enough when you broke his bones, the first time… and the second… and so on._

"You know, Stef, you really need to feed more often. You should try a human every now and then, you might find you're not as vulnerable." Damon patronised him.

At the mention of blood, he felt his fangs descending and his face changing.

Damon smiled in satisfaction, he threw a glass bottle at Stefan who, even weak, caught it with ease. It was filled to the brim with blood- still warm.

Before he could protest, Damon spoke. "To save myself from hearing your _no, Damon, I only drink from defenceless forest animals, not people, _lecture, it's deer blood."

"You hunted deer?"

"It's nowhere near as thrilling as the chase with humans but… it was entertaining enough, I suppose."

Stefan had not seen his brother in a long time, but a part of him suspected that Damon was near sometimes. He never saw him, or heard him, but occasionally he would think he sensed him somewhere nearby, he knew better than to try and find him, Damon could not be found unless he wanted to be. It did not surprise him that Damon knew about his feeding habits, or that he had discovered where he was last night.

Despite this, he and Damon had not spoken in twenty nine years, he felt awkward about opening up to him.

"Thank you," he coughed once, "I appreciate that."

"You're welcome. It's not like me rescuing you from foolishly dangerous situations is anything new."

"I've never nearly died before."

"Maybe not, but you managed to actually die once. Don't try for a second time." Damon wanted his tone to be teasing, but it came out as solemn, he kept his expression in line. He refused to go soft when it came to his little brother, Stefan had betrayed him, whether he had saved his life last night or not did not change that.

"It was not my fault." Damon's head shot up at Stefan's words and he was brought back to the present as he realised that he was referring to the events of last night. "He was following me."

"You only noticed him when he was chasing you?" He was sceptical, even Stefan could not miss being stalked all night.

"No, I sensed him earlier but…"He trailed off.

"Huh, I'm unsure of whether to be relived that at least you are not so weak your senses are not working, or frustrated that despite your senses working you still manage to find trouble. Are you honestly telling me that you were unable to afford a cab?"

"Cabs are expensive." Stefan argued quietly.

"You don't have to eat and you have a job, you could have afforded it. You also were kind enough to lead him to a surprisingly empty part of the city where he could attack without witness'. There's being generous and then there's idiocy, and guess which category you fall into."

Stefan made no reply, no matter how long it had been, Damon could still reduce him to an abashed child with mere words.

"You should contact, Lexi." He recommended.

"Why?"

"Somebody has to teach you how to defend yourself, since you obviously do not know how."

He nodded once, there was no point in arguing, he would pretend to go along with it. He would not bother his best friend with asking her to spend her time doing him a favour.

"Drink your blood." Damon instructed, he obeyed silently.

He fell asleep and when he woke up, Damon was gone. He discovered however that the room he was staying in had been paid for until the end of the month and the following day Lexi appeared at the hotel.

She informed him that Damon had written to her telling her that there was an emergency and that he would explain upon her arrival. When he told her what had happened she stunned him by being completely on Damon's side, and so his training began.

**Modern day**

Damon was in the living room of the boarding house, laying back on his comfortable sofa, bourbon in one hand, TV remote in the other, watching a movie. It was not a brilliant movie but engaging enough to keep his attention, when his phone began to ring.

He struggled to pull it out of his tight pocket and sighed as he saw who it was- Klaus. He rejected the call, he did not want to talk to the hybrid now… or ever for that matter. Why did he even have his number? He wondered.

He returned his attention back to the movie and was just getting back into it, when the phone began ringing again. This time it was Elijah, with a groan he answered.

"Yes, Elijah. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

If Elijah picked up on his heavy sarcasm he made no comment. "Damon, you need to come to my house."

"What so we can eat ice-cream and braid each others hair?"

"No, because your brother is passed put on my couch and I thought you might be interested."

"Give me five minutes." Some days Damon was sure that Stefan hated him, why else would he be such a huge pain in his ass?

When he arrived at the Mikaelson mansion he practically ran to the front door and pushed it open forcefully, causing it to smash loudly into the wall.

Elijah was standing in front of him, eyebrows raised as he looked from Damon to the cracks in the plaster.

"Niklaus will not be happy." He calmly settled on.

"I don't give a damn if Klaus is happy or not. Where's my brother?"

Elijah inclined his head, indicating that Damon follow him and lead him into one of the stylish living rooms of the obscenely big house.

Klaus, Rebekah and Caroline stood around one of the sofas and Kol lay stretched out across the other. He was watching a programme about unintelligent attractive people who seemingly did not feel that clothing was a necessary part of life. At any other time, Damon would be sitting down and watching it with him, but this time he was more focused on the hardly moving form of his brother.

"What's wrong with him?"

Nobody seemed keen to answer. "Don't all talk at once."

"He's taken something." Caroline stated with concern.

"He's high?" That seemed extremely out of character for Stefan.

"As a kite." Kol piped up.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Rebekah pondered, not sounding overly worried.

"No, he's been an idiot for the past thousand years, that's not going to change." Klaus replied, both he and Rebekah laughed at Kol's expense.

Damon was beginning to see why it annoyed people when he did that.

"What happened?" He glanced at Elijah, one of the few sensible people in the room.

"I was not there, Caroline?" He invited her to explain.

"Me, and Stefan were at the grill and then he was high."

"Well that was an excellent explanation ,Barbie why you're not a top selling author is beyond me." He taunted.

"No, I have to agree with the baby vampire." Rebekah spoke up. "That's what happened."

"What were _you _doing there?"

"I was with Nik and Kol, we invited Elijah but he said he was busy-"

"Please skip the family drama and get to the point." She glowered at him for a long moment but continued.

"We were drinking, so were Caroline and Stefan, then he was… weird. Very cheery, laughing, attempting to undress in public, not that I objected to that. And finally he decided to lie down on the floor and gaze at he stars. It wouldn't have been such an issue if he hadn't decided to do it in the middle of the road. Anyway, we brought him back with us."

"What, as your good deed of the century?"

"No, Nik fancies Caroline so he decided to do something nice for her."

Klaus glared at his sister, but said nothing, it was not as though everybody in the room didn't know that already.

"So he took drugs and nobody noticed? Come on, you guys are supposed to be vampires, and a hybrid." he tagged on at the end.

"I don't think even he noticed. Somebody must have spiked it." Caroline theorised.

"Why?" He had done some odd things before now but that seemed rather pointless. A big risk for little reward.

"Personal amusement ,most likely." Kol suggested, without bothering to look away from the bright screen.

"Should we… call Meredith or something? She's a doctor." Caroline still looked extremely distressed about the state of her friend.

"For god's sake, will you all be quite and stop worrying. He didn't even take much, and yet you're all interrupting my show to blather on about it." Kol complained with a roll of his eyes.

Klaus sighed in disappointment, "you are really not as clever as you like to tell yourself, Kol."

The vampire gazed up towards them for the first time, to find them all staring at him. "What?" He demanded defensively.

"How do you know how much he took unless you gave it to him?" Elijah inquired coolly.

Kol, recognising that he had been caught out, threw up his hands. "Don't overreact, it was just a bit of fun, he's fine."

"He's unconscious." Damon disagreed, he had to restrain himself from racing over there and snapping the smug bastard's neck again. As tempting as the thought was, he did not think it was worth having Elijah, Klaus and Rebekah to strip the skin from his bones, over.

"He'll wake up." Kol brushed him off.

"Where did you purchase the drugs from, Kol?" Elijah's tone was serious and Damon suspected angry, although with the original's stoicism it was hard to tell.

"Some guy."

"Some guy? How specific." Damon's voice was biting.

"Kol." Elijah warned.

"Fine, I don't know his name and address if that's what you're hoping for. He's early thirties, red-brown hair and grey eyes. You'll probably find him outside the grill."

"Sounds as though you're fairly well acquainted with him." Klaus observed, "do the two of you speak to each other regularly?"

Kol may not have been as intelligent as he liked to think, but he was smart enough not to answer that.

"Do you need help getting him to the car?" Elijah offered politely.

"Thanks." It wasn't the weight that was the problem, more that it was often awkward to carry something with the shape of a tall, muscular guy.

"Mini-Elijah," he addressed Kol, "remember I broke your neck and kicked your ass once before, you do anything like this again and that'll seem like fun day out." He threatened.

Kol scoffed and his attention was drawn back to the television.

"Don't worry Damon, if Kol's not sorry at the moment, he's going to be very sorry by this time tomorrow." He shot his youngest brother a very pointed look.

Kol stared at him beseechingly and appeared about to argue, but Elijah silenced him by simply raising his hand.

_I need to learn that trick., _Damon decided.

Once Stefan was loaded into the car, Damon drove them home in silence. Once they arrived, Stefan had woken up, but had not sobered up. He could walk but kept insisting that he'd rather lie down and sleep. Damon did consider letting him do just that and telling himself that this was not his problem, but that was a lie. Stefan's problems had been his problems since the day he was born. He knew that that would never change.

He helped a giddy Stefan climb the stairs, his brother insisted on counting every stair they travelled up as though calling numbers at a bingo hall. This was the only time he had ever cursed having so many stairs when _he _was sober.

Stefan fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Damon ran his had through his hair once and smiled softly, now that Stefan was safe, he could relax.

He fervently hoped that whatever punishment Elijah was planning on doling out to Kol was truly heinous. Something cruel and torturous. He had always thought he hated Kol, even more than Klaus, he was a slimy, nasty little creep. The only reason he was still alive was because of his ferocious siblings who happened to love him. He realised that he had merely disliked, granted severely disliked, Kol before, now he despised him. He was frustrated that he could not kill him, on almost all other occasions those who harmed Stefan died, and he was now powerless to do that. All he could hope for was that Elijah's punishment was as harsh as possible.

_Oh well, at least you can find the guy who sold it to Kol and rip his heart out. _He consoled himself.

The next morning when Stefan woke up he had that familiar sensation of knowing that you had done something horribly embarrassing the night before, that you won't ever be able to live down.

_Crap! _He recalled Caroline endeavouring to stop him from stripping at the grill, he had actually got his shirt off and unbuttoned his jeans before Rebekah and Klaus stepped in to assist Caroline. Kol had watched and laughed, as had _many _other people. He also remembered lying down in the road and stopping the meagre amount of traffic.

"Morning." Damon greeted from the doorway.

"Oh my god." He moaned, resting his head in his hands.

"Are you thinking back to the many humiliating incidents that occurred last night, involving you?"

"Yep."

"If it's any consolation, you can hate Kol for it. He spiked your drink with something."

"Dick!" He cried in surprise.

"Uh-huh. Don't worry about it, we can't kill him but Elijah's not very happy with him so… he's not going to be having any fun for a while."

Damon threw a bottle at him and he caught it on reflex without thinking about it. It was a water bottle filled with animal blood.

"I mixed a tiny bit of human in there too, teaching you control and all."

"Thanks."

"Drink your blood. It's not spiked- promise."

"You're going to do that a lot, aren't you?" He asked with trepidation.

"Oh yes, and so is everybody else. By the way, I've seen pictures of last night on facebook- hysterical!" He was still laughing as he walked out of the room.

_Typical Damon, couldn't ruin his reputation by being completely nice to me._ He thought fondly.

**The end.**

**I have no idea what New Orleans was like in 1893, it was just the first place in America I thought of. I also don't know much about ,what Price Peterson who does hilarious vampire diaries recaps calls, "the timeline of assholery", so I'm not sure who was good and who was bad at this point. I'm also aware that a lot of it did not fit in with the timeline of the show.**

**Please review.**


End file.
